Looks like her brush with the law in Atlanta this month hasn’t put any dampeners on Reese Witherspoon’s pulling power. The actress in now in negotiations to star opposite Keanu Reeves in the sci-fi romance Passengers.
Based on a script written by Prometheus writer Jon Spaihts, Passengers was commissioned as a vehicle for Reeves. The film involves a starship set to deliver human cargo to a colony. When one passenger awakes from his hypersleep a century early he realises he could spend the rest of his life alone. Not wanting to die of boredom and behave like David from Prometheus by dying his roots, he decides to wake up a female passenger for “company.” Sounds a bit selfish to be honest, but she’ll probably turn out to be a droid planted on the ship by Weyland anyway.
Spaihts’ original script earned a coveted spot on the 2007 Black List – Hollywood’s most celebrated as-yet-unproduced screenplays. The project failed to ignite and Spaihts went on to write Prometheus. There’s a definite similarity in the premises of both films so we can but wonder if there’ll be any meta-tastic crossover action. If only Ridley Scott had been directing.
Reeves and Witherspoon certainly create a unique coupling which you wouldn’t normally expect. Reeves has got the experience and the chops to pull off a confused item of human cargo (see: Bill and Ted, Point Break, Speed, etc) and Witherspoon hasn’t touched sci-fi….errr…ever.
Just last week it was announced that original director Gabriele Mucchino had jumped ship (guffaw!) and Game Of Thrones‘ Brian Kirk had climbed aboard to assume the role. Expect the entire cast of Game of Thrones to pop up at some point.
Passengers is set to shoot in Montreal some time this year. Are you intrigued by this latest bit of casting news? Or couldn’t give a woopsy?
